ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2024
Trends in full-time working in general practice: a repeated cross-sectional study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- The general practice workforce crisis in Europe: scale of the challenge and available policy responses.The Lancet. Primary care · 2026Review
- Counting general practitioners: a comparative repeat cross-sectional analysis of GPs in NHS general practice in England.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Article
- Trends in the shortfall of English NHS general practice doctors: repeat cross sectional study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Devalued: the financial erosion of the GP role.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- A hole in the bucket? exploring England's retention rates of recently qualified GPs.Human resources for health · 2025Article
- What is a full-time GP?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- GP working time and supply, and patient demand in England in 2015-2022: a retrospective study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is little evidence and no agreement on what constitutes full-time working for GPs. This is essential for workforce planning, resource allocation, and accurately describing GP activity.
aimTo clarify the definition of full-time working for GPs, how this has changed over time, and whether these changes are explained by GP demographics. DESIGN AND
settingData were obtained from repeated cross-sectional national surveys for GPs, which were conducted between 2010 and 2021.
methodA comparison was undertaken of three measures of working time commitments (hours and sessions per week and hours per session) plus a measure of workload intensity across survey years. Multiple regression was used to adjust the changes over time for age, sex, ethnicity, contract type, area deprivation, and rurality. Unadjusted hours and sessions per week were compared with definitions of full-time working.
resultsAverage hours and sessions per week reduced from 40.5 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.5 to 42.5) to 38.0 (95% CI = 36.3 to 39.6) and 7.3 (95% CI = 7.2 to 7.3) to 6.2 (95% CI = 6.2 to 6.3) between 2010 and 2021, respectively. In 2021, 54.6% of GPs worked at least 37.5 hours per week and 9.5% worked at least nine sessions. Hours per session increased from 5.7 (95% CI = 5.7 to 5.7) to 6.2 (95% CI = 6.2 to 6.3) between 2010 and 2021. Partners worked more hours, sessions, and hours per session. Adjustments expanded the increase in hours per session from 0.54 to 0.61.
conclusionAt the current average duration of sessions, six sessions per week aligns with the NHS definition of full-time hours. However, hours per week is a more consistent way to define full-time work for GPs.
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